More Ben Jonson (“Our Beauties Are Not Ours”)

AG: “Our beauties are not ours” – that’s really good – that other line following – “Our beauties are not ours” – It’s a great Buddhist line – We don’t own anything. We can’t claim anything. We can’t keep anything. ” Our beauties are not ours” is just the same as “Brightness falls from the air” – [from Thomas Nashe’s “In Time of Plague”] – Brightness falls from the air, it doesn’t stay up there, you know, (youthful blondes don’t stay standing erect, with knees collapsed!) – “Our beauties are not ours” – So that’s a.. pretty nice then – “Droop herbs and flowers, fall grief and showers/Our beauties are not ours” – I wonder what that is (metrically) ( Allen goes to the blackboard) – Our beauties are not ours”

“Our beauties…” “our beauties” (writing on the board) – “Our beauties are not ours” (you could say it that way) – “Our beauties are not ours” – or you could say “Our beaut-ies/ are not /ours” (you could make that an iambic line – “Our beauties/are not/ours” (or) “Our beauties are not/ours”. But it’s funny, because you could say “Our beauties/ are not.. ” – “Our beauties are not ours” -“Our beauties are not ours” – Any way you want to put it, you could, you know, like a great pianist determining what extra accents he wants to put on the – Our beauties are not ours” – So if you get, “Droop herbs and flowers/Fall grief and showers/ Our beauties are not ours” – or, you know. you could make it anyway – “Our beauties..” – “Our beauties are not ours” or “Our beauties are not ours” or “Our beauties are not ours” – Any way you want to do it, depending on your interpretation, when you’re up there on top of your girlfriend, trying to steal her petals!

[Audio for the above can be heard here, beginning at approximately sixty-nine-and-a-half minutes in and concluding at approximately seventy-one-and-a-half minutes in]